Paradise

I've just spent a week in paradise. I didn't go to Florida or the mountains or even on a cruise, though I know from experience that, that is nice also. Rather, I spent a week at home on these three acres of land, with my husband, and all we did was dig, carry,rake, clean up, transplant and plant. Most days we worked until the light was gone but with plenty of breaks to enjoy our surroundings we went to bed, each night, worry free and slept peacefully. We had time to be with and talk with one another. Discussions about our 'jobs' diminished after the first day. We got dirty, sweaty and scratched up. My 'spa' treatment was a good back rub from my husband. If you are a gardener, as we are, time stands still when you are gardening. Because of the warm spring we actually could almost see the hostas growing. At the beginning of the week they were just edging out of the ground. As I speak today, most of them especially the early cream and white varieties are at full peak and gorgeous. Most of our flowering trees and bushes seemed to bloom at the same time as the fragrance of Lilacs and Viburnum followed us around our property. The star of the show was one of our white dogwood trees which exploded overnight with bright, white blooms. A second sun on this little plot of ground. Early in the week we transplanted a young dogwood which was in the wrong spot. We dug it up in the early morning and had the new spot prepared and ready. We waited all week thinking that it was damaged but finally today I saw leaves. I'm sure we won't have blooms this year but that is ok. It is better to transplant young trees before the sap starts to run,but gardening is about taking chances, sometimes educated decisions but usually gut feelings. We divided one hosta and a few daylillies. Even though I worked hard physically I am returning to work with a well rested mind and a stronger body. I hope that I can hang on to that as the weeks dissolve into summer. As I work with my living canvas I am filled with a reverence for life. What a perfect spring!

Spring is Here!!

Did you know that you can burn up to 300 calories in just a half hour of vigorous gardening? That would include raking, digging, carrying, squatting,weeding,planting and lifting,etc. I'm sure you could help me add more. I thought that I could keep up with my blog once good weather came but I missed writing last Sunday because I was gardening. I can't stay inside and my housework has suffered miserably but I try not to look at it. I also don't want to prepare meals when I am outside. I just want to stay outside. Sounds like spring fever? Well, it is. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. My window of opportunity is small. There are many things that I can do in late spring, and early summer and summer but spring is here and I must be outside. There are plants to be divided such as day lillies and hostas. You can divide them later on but it is much harder to do and to keep them alive and kicking! We spent the biggest part of our day today, cleaning up our hill, getting rid of overgrowth, weeds and plants that were just not doing well. I am so fortunate that my husband loves to garden as much as I do. We vow, each time, to keep one another on task, for walking to one spot to another to retrieve a shovel or a rake is hazardous to our project. It takes one weed, one rock out of place and it's another twenty minutes before you bring the rake back. Oh well, spontaneity is part of what draws me to gardening. Happy spring everyone, hope you are enjoying it as much as I am! Gotta go back outside!

The night began and ended in a soft snowfall which covered and coated each twig, branch and stalk of grass. I awoke to a world swaddled in a quilt of snow and couldn't stop looking. Taking the camera I stepped out onto the deck to take photos of this overnight miracle. The past Friday, with temperatures in the seventies, I was huddled in a room wodering if that afternoon would be my last while the storm raged outside. Hail pelted the windows and a lull, in the storn, so slow and silent left us guessing about what would happen next. We were spared that day but Henryville, Indiana and Maryvile Indiana were not. As I drove to work, three days later, taking in the incrediable beauty and feeling such gratitude to live in such a beautiful place I was also filled with sorrow for families who lost homes, businesses and worst of all, loved ones. How can a day be so bad and yet be so beautiful? There are no guaranties in nature or life but to live each day to the fullest. And to not let a momemt pass to tell someone that they are loved and appreciated. To not let a day pass that I don't see what is outside my window and bless the nature that God has given me to enjoy. Spring will come, the grass will grow so green it will hurt my eyes. Birds will build nests and raise their young. I will plant my tomatoes, sage, and zinnias. Hostas will be divided and transplanted. Great quanities of earth will be moved on the Starr acerage, God willing, I have that chance and those opportunites to watch my grandchildren run in the back field and listen to my children laughing around the table as we always do when we are together. Spring will come as it always does, in sorrow and in joy. The spring peepers will announce a new season, as they always do. I hope to have more seasons to enjoy it all and take each evening walk with my husband to soak in the beauty and talk of unimportant things because it is in the commoness of each day that I find my humanity.
God bless those folks, in southern Indiana and elsewhere, who have lost loved ones and great and little pieces of their lives.

Lemon Balm

The morning sun is as bright as it can be as February draws to an end. And on this bright, sunny morning I have dreams of lemon balm! While my my husband and I were out walking our property, with entourage of two dogs and two yellow cats, I noticed the bright,green,and crinkly leaves of my newly emerging lemon balm plants. Apparently my lemon balm was making an early entrance due to the warmer temperatures that we have had. It's a sturdy plant that can grow almost anywhere but does best in the full sun. Lemon balm is a plant that belongs to the mint family. It has been growing in my garden for years, just as it grew in my sister and father's gardens. It's a wonderful plant but does tend to get out of control if you don't take care of it. The green deepens as the plant grows and if you don't keep cutting it, to use, it becomes leggy. My father used to keep a glass jar of lemon balm tea in his frig and used it for stomach issues. Lemon balm has been reported to have healing abilities,kill bacteria,will relax muscles, and provide pain relief. The taste is mild, minty, and lemony depending on how long you allow the leaves to seep. The leaves may be dried and used for hot tea.
My lemon balm plants are scattered over most of our garden. My plan is to give this plant the respect that it deserves by transplanting some healthy specimens to a select spot in my cutting herb garden. I will repot them in a garden pot and then sink the pot into the soil of my raised bed, hopefully keeping it under control.
In the past I have had lemon balm tea, and fresh in ice tea. You can also add it fresh to salads, garnish meat or fresh fruit deserts. I have also used it to decorate cake tops.
After years of ignoring lemon balm I will again welcome it back to a warm spot in one of my raised beds. I think it's time fo me to rediscover what the ancients knew about lemon balm.

February

As I was Rushing out to the car Thursday morning, I was literally brought to my knees. I know that I have long held the notion of the icy cold emptiness of February, but have since then gained a different perspective. Even though I knew I needed to leave at that moment, to get to work, I had to stop and absorb the beauty of that morning. In the still, chilly air I could smell the promise of spring. Birds were calling to each other and each plant was surrounded by light. Yes, it was light out! Suddenly it hit me! I was not leaving for work on yet another gloomy dark winter's day. The following Friday there were clinging tendrils of fog that deepened in the valley and hushed the world. Nature is humbling and though I am eager to get my hands dirty I also need to appreciate the season that I am in. Our grandson was baptised today, an occasion that filled me with joy and nostalgia for those days when my children were young. As we stood at the front of the church with my daughter, her husband, my grandaughter and grandson it seemed as this had just happened yesterday with my children. There were three other grandchildren and one of our sons,their father, sitting in the pew taking part. I wanted to shout, "Hey stop! This life is going way too fast!" But how awesome it is to now see this from the other side, as grandparents. Growing older, and just life, is about acceptance and in that the freedom to not be bound by fear. Each season teaches me a lesson that I need to be open to see,hear and learn. May February always glow for you!

The Past Kisses the Present

It is another quiet Sunday as I gaze out my window at our still, cold garden. It's really, really cold here and it's a shock! I was lulled into thinking that these warmer temps were here to stay! Indiana weather, like life, is never static.
On Friday my husband and I drove to Indianapolis, in a chilly wind, to help my sister,and husband, with a baby shower for their only daughter's first child. After a day of laughing, hugging,talking and preparing food and making plans,we were happy to be in a warm house while a light snow fell. Time spent with my loving sister brings back all the years of good good memories we have and will have. She is the best sister anyone could have.
The shower was a success and the bonus for us, was that we also spent time with three of our children, a son in law and three of our grandchildren. We all scooted together around a table made for six people and did what all families do when together. We gossiped, we laughed and made light jokes of one other and life, took funny photos and patiently listened (my children) to the advice I had saved up for them. I am so blessed with family and if any of my family is reading this, I would like to personally thank you!
With the shower over my children and I visited my mother at her nursing home. She has had many strokes and cannot communicate well and has ceased to recognize me, as her daughter, a long time ago. But after the shock and mourning of that deep loss, I have accepted that although she does not recognize me, I recognize her. She is that same woman who raised me, nursed me through illnesses, taught me to read and love books, and plants and appreciated and encouraged my writing. She is still my mother and I love her even though she has no idea who this is, sitting by her side and holding her hand. She was just happy to have a visit. As my oh so grown up children kissed her, held her hands and talked to and responded to her unintelligable speech I was reminded of all her many kindnesses in life and how 'being kind' to others was so important to her as was family. I was so proud of my children and saw first hand how her legacy has affected them. With tears in their eyes, they patiently gave their time and their love. What a gift!
And, that is why we were there, in Indy on a cold winter's day, spending tiem with family,attending a shower for our lovely neice who will be having a baby girl who will carry on my mother's Irish gift of happiness, love and kindness and feistiness,I'm sure. Our eldest daughter was missed but she was busy loving and supporting her daugher, our grand daughter, who was involved in an important competition. With love, we do what is most needed, to do, at the time.
So the wheel goes on. Families gather together and love one another and keep that wheel rolling generation after generation. Loving one another should be enough to keep us going through good times and bad.
My garden lies still and cold ready to erupt in spring madness in a very short time. There is soil to be turned and warmed and spinach to be planted soon and spring lettuce. In the spring when I step out into my garden and place my hand on my favorite shovel my thoughts will be of my daughters, sister, neices, mother, grandmother and greatgrandmother all who gardened for just the love of it. Then I will turn the soil and plant once again for that is what a gardener does.

Clearing paths for the future

Another dank,gloomy day in Southern Indiana, but it's not raining! Outside was quiet. The kind of stillness you find only in winter. After collecting all our tools needed to clean up the garden path we started to rake up old leaves and bits and pieces of winter debris. The silence was a mantle settling over our shoulders under those gray skies and we both jumped a foot when a flock of Starlings thundered upward. Cleaning up for Spring is essential for this gardener, but the weather doesn't always cooperate and I do have another job. But you do what you can. Plans are to remove the old picket fence in the front of our house. I love the fence but it makes it difficult to tend to our front hill so we are moving the fence back and removing an old crab tree and other vegetation. The fence line will be moved back and give me brand new garden areas or rooms.
Yesterday I ordered four Arp Rosemary plants. They are suppose to be hardy in zone 6 with protection. Now I need to go outside and carry away the debris we raked up. It feels good to garden in February!